Jim Archuleta doesn’t understand how the woman who captured his heart when they were both teens could have ignored their scalded toddler’s painful injuries or how she could have lied about them to police.

“I am just blown away by how she could cover up what really happened to my son,” he said of Isela Reyes-Talamantes in a tearful interview Tuesday.

Reyes-Talamantes, 23, and John Vigil, 24, are in custody and face murder charges in the death of Elijah Archuleta, 2. Elijah’s 4-year-old sister told police that Vigil burned the boy.

Reyes-Talamantes told police that she and Vigil fabricated a story to explain the injuries and waited hours before taking the child to the hospital Friday. Medical personnel estimated the boy had burns over 75 percent of his body and said he had a black eye.

It remains unclear exactly how Elijah was burned, but Vigil told Reyes-Talamantes that the boy burned himself when he turned on hot bath water while reaching for a sponge toy, according to a police report.

The pair drove around Denver for hours taking care of errands with the injured child in the back seat, she told police.

“He was just an outgoing little guy, very happy all the time, always smiling. . . . He was limited on words, but what he did say just made you laugh,” Archuleta said.

He sees nothing of the girl he romanced when both were students at Abraham Lincoln High School in the haunted stare that Reyes-Talamantes wears in her mug shot. “She was the kind of girl who made you just tingle inside, and now, she is not the same woman,” he said.

Reyes-Talamantes filed for divorce in Jefferson County in April.

“It was her who wanted to break up. She told him that she no longer loved him, but I know that he loved his wife and was hoping to work things out,” said Desiree Moreno, a friend of Archuleta’s.

After the couple broke up, Reyes-Talamantes blocked Archuleta’s efforts to see his children, Moreno said.

Once, when Archuleta was supposed to see the kids, he went to the house where his wife was staying and found Vigil about to drive away with them, Moreno said.

Archuleta was able to stop him by jumping on the car.

On Tuesday, Archuleta was reunited with his daughter, Serenity, who had been in protective custody since the boy’s death.

“She is very happy to be with me. It was emotional, but they weren’t tears of sadness, they were tears of happiness,” he said of their reunion.

Archuleta’s friends and family are planning a pair of benefits in memory of Elijah. The first is at noon Saturday at Armonis Bar & Grill, 7576 W. Jewell Ave. in Lakewood. The following day, a benefit will be at noon at Ralston Lounge, 6420 Ward Road in Arvada.

Donations of food, gift certificates or other raffle items are welcome, Moreno said. Checks can be made out to the Elijah Archuleta Memorial Fund.

A general assignment reporter for The Denver Post, Tom McGhee has covered business, police, courts, higher education and breaking news. He came to The Post from Albuquerque, N.M., where he worked for a year and a half covering utilities. He began his journalism career in New York City, worked for a pair of community weeklies that covered the west side of Manhattan from 14th Street to 125th Street.

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